Have you ever seen something and later thought could I have done something to help? Something to give?

Today I did and I decided to help ease the pain for my neighbours.

Day 268: Give 268

My son loves to watch the garbage trucks come by our house. We get 3 trucks every garbage day. One for regular garbage, one for recycling and one for garden waste. We have a back lane at our house and the garbage truck comes in backwards and goes down the lane in reverse. The lanes are not wide but every week they seem to back up with easy in their big oversized vehicles. Today the driver was a bit off and added an extra load to my garden waste.

I’m not sure how the driver did it but he backed up into my neighbours beautiful, old Japanese maple. One hit and a tug to remove it from his side mirror and the tree went down. It was like a loose tooth that with even a little extra wind it would hit the ground. I felt terrible for my neighbours as I knew they have lived there for over 30 years and I have this feeling that Japanese maple had been there as long. My first thought was to tie it up before I told them about the accident but realized if I touched it would come completely uprooted.

Instead I decided to perform a random act of kindness. I went inside and got a pretty card in which I wrote:

“I hope this eases the pain tonight. I am sorry to inform you the garbage truck hit your maple at the end of your property and it did not make it.”

I took the note along with a bottle of wine and left it on their door step for their arrival home from work. I thought that I would take a bad situation and at least put a smile on their face. One small act eases the pain.

What did you do as a Random Act of Kindness this week or one small act to make another persons day? Maybe you to decided not to turn your back and walk away from a situation but instead you gave? Leave us a comment and share your story.

Time Commitment: 5 minutes

Cost: A bottle of wine

7 Comments

Hurt trees always sadden me! I love your solution because I was stumped. I would have wanted to save the tree, but it is too difficult and delicate of a situation to handle, unless you are the owner. You did the best thing. Such a great idea.